Grow Edible Garden Hedges!

Garden hedges are simply a row of shrubs planted to form a screen, divider, or barrier.

Hedges provide privacy, act in place of fencing, keep animals in or out,
visually set off an area of the yard, or form a backdrop for other,
more showy plants. Hedges can be formally trimmed, or left to grow in
more natural shapes.

If trimmed, hedges are the simplest form of topiary. Trimming hedges is an easy way to see if you
like shaping plants before tackling more difficult topiary forms.

Best of all, your garden hedges can be edible!

The best hedges to plant depend on the reason you need a garden hedge, because there are many different types:

A privacy hedge screens your yard from view, or hides something objectionable.
Privacy hedges are also called privacy screens, and are usually are eye level or higher. The best privacy screens
are fast growing evergreen hedges, planted close together (arborvitae
is a good example). But if you only need privacy during summer,
deciduous plants such as elderberry or Siberian peashrub can work very
well.

A barrier hedge
is used when you want to keep animals or people from crossing an area.
Most barrier hedges are composed of thorny plants -- roses and pomegranates make excellent barrier hedges.
Barrier hedges blocking off farmland from roads are called hedgerows, and often contain hedge trees as well.

A divider hedge
is used to mark the boundaries of a garden, used for things like knot
gardens, hedge mazes, or grown to provide backdrops or other ornamental
uses.
Garden hedges that are simply dividers can be
made of any shrub or plant, the exact one depending on the look you
want. I've seen divider hedges of lavender, daylilies, and even parsley!

Choosing edible shrubs for hedges

First you need to decide whether your garden hedges
will be formal or informal. Woody evergreen plants with relatively
small leaves that grow thickly (for example, rosemary,
one of the fruit-bearing Eugenias, bay laurel, or holly) are best for formal box-cut (or other
geometrically-shaped) hedges. For informal
hedges, any shrub of the right mature size for your needs will do.

Take a look at the final mature height and width of the plant (which you can find information about from your supplier). While pruning
can keep many plants smaller than usual, a tree with a 30 foot final
height will only look good as a four foot garden hedge for so long. You
can generally keep a plant pruned to 1/2 of its "normal" height before
the plant starts to have problems.

Also look at the plant's growth pattern:

Does it grow densely or with a more open form? You can find clues in pruning
instructions -- if there are a lot of instructions on how to prune to
"create an open structure" or similar things, you're likely dealing with
a dense-growth plant.
You can use plants that grow with a more open
form in hedging, if you don't care about it being a formal privacy
hedge. Just be aware of what you're doing.

What shape does
this plant naturally grow in? Tall, thin plants will do best for narrow
hedges, where plants with spreading growth will be best for lower-height
hedges. Keep in mind that often a particular plant has varieties that
grow in different ways (bush, spreading, etc.), and choose the plant
that fits what you want.

Does this plant put out branches
close to the ground? While some only will do this when pruned to limit
height, plants that only send out branches several feet from the ground
(most trees fall into this category) will need other plants below them
if you want to use them as barrier or privacy hedges.

Also, what color do you want your hedges to
be? What sort of flowers or fruit does this plant have? Will it fit your
overall design?

An important factor is whether your family likes
to eat what this plant produces, because several dozen feet of
something you won't use is food going to waste.

Planting landscape hedges

When planting a hedge, the spacing depends on what
kind of garden hedges you need, and whether they are to be formally
pruned or allowed to grow naturally.

For a "wall of plants" type hedge, choose a dense-growth plant that puts out branches low to the ground.

Place plants at around 3/4 of their final mature
width (for example, if you're planting something with a final width of 4
feet, put the plants 3 feet apart).

As the plants grow, their branches will
intertwine, forming the "wall" you want. You can prune the wall if you
want it to look formal or leave it alone for an informal look.

The exact spacing depends on the plant and what
it produces. If you're going to need to get into the plants to harvest
fruit, for example, you'll want to space the plants out more. If you've
picked a less dense-growing plant, you may want to space the plants
closer to get the right effect.

To make a row of evenly spaced plants, take the
width of each plant (either the normal width or the width you want to
prune it to) then add how much spacing you need.

Example 1: You have plants that you want to
prune to 2 feet wide, and you want 1 foot between each plant. Therefore,
place the plants three feet apart (2 feet for the pruned width plus 1
foot for the spacing).

Example 2: You have plants that will end up 4
feet wide, and you want 1 foot of spacing. Therefore, place the plants 5
feet apart (4 feet for the width plus 1 foot for the spacing).

These calculations only work if all the plants
are the same width. If you're mixing plants in a hedge, or you want to
prune your plants to different widths, spacing becomes a bit more
complicated. Basically what you do is to allow for half the width of
each plant then add the spacing.

Example: Plant A will be 2 feet wide. Plant B
will be 4 feet wide. You want 1 foot space between each of them. The way
you figure this is 1 foot for plant A, 2 feet for plant B, and one foot
for the space. So place plant A four feet from plant B.

This applies to informal and formal hedges -- any situation where the plants will end up being different widths.

Pruning your garden hedges

If you want your garden hedges to be full and dense
all the way to the ground, you must prune the plants down to six inches
from the ground when you plant them. This applies no matter if you
intend this to be a formal or an informal hedge.

If you do this, the plant will make many low
branches, adding to them as it grows taller, and will grow in a dense
pattern. Keep the base of your hedge wider than the top so the lower
branches won't lose their leaves.

The best hedge trimmer
is one that works for you. I personally prefer manual hedge clippers,
but lots of people like electric hedge trimmers or a gas powered hedge
trimmer. You can even use a weedeater as a hedge trimmer if you're in a
hurry.

Creating your own edible yard? Would you like to talk more about edible garden
hedges with a group of people who love edible landscaping as much as you
do? Join the Tasteful Landscape community: